Dynamic migration of virtual machine computer programs upon satisfaction of conditions

ABSTRACT

A system includes a network, a number of server computing devices, and a management server computing device. Each server computing device has a virtual host computer program running thereon to support one or more virtual machine computer programs. Each virtual machine computer program is able to execute an instance of an operating system on which application computer programs are executable. The management server computing device monitors the server computing devices, and causes the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer program of a first server computing device to dynamically migrate to the virtual host computer program of a second server computing device, upon one or more conditions being satisfied. The conditions may include the first server being predicted as failure prone, the first sever consuming power less than a threshold, and the first server having resource utilization less than a threshold.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to virtual host computerprograms running on server computing devices and that can supportvirtual machine computer programs. The invention more particularlyrelates to the dynamic migration of such virtual machine computerprograms from a virtual host computer program running on one servercomputing device to a virtual host computer program running on anotherserver computing device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A common type of network that is deployed in organizations is theclient-server network. In a client-server network, there may be a numberof client computing devices, or clients, which are typically used by endusers of an organization, and a number of server computing devices, orservers, which are computing devices that are shared among the clients,and thus the users. Types of servers can include application servers,file servers, intranet servers, e-mail servers, electronic commerceservers, print servers, proxy servers, and web servers, among otherkinds of servers.

To reduce information technology (IT) costs, some types of servers canrun virtual host computer programs. A virtual host computer program is atype of supervising computer program, which enables a number of virtualmachine computer programs to be run on the server. A virtual machinecomputer program allows a separate instance of an operating system to berun thereon, such as versions of the Microsoft Windows® operatingsystem, versions of the UNIX® operating system, and versions of theLinux® operating system.

In an environment within which virtual machine computer programs are runon virtual host computer programs of servers, users may not be requiredto have full-fledged client computing devices. Rather, each user may beassigned a virtual machine computer program, and have areduced-capability client computing device that basically handles inputfrom the user to send to the virtual machine computer program, andoutput from the virtual machine computer program to the user. The serveron which the virtual machine computer program runs thus provides thecomputational support for a number of users, so that expensive clientsare not needed for these users.

In these and other types of uses of virtual machine computer programs,maintaining high availability of the servers is important. For instance,a faulty server can affect a number of users, whereas a faulty clientmay affect just a single user. Mission-critical application computerprograms may run in conjunction with the operating systems of thevirtual machine computer programs, regardless of whether the virtualmachine computer programs correspond to particular users or whether theyrun multiple user-type application computer programs. A faulty server inthis instance may affect a number of virtual machine computer programs,and thus a number of mission-critical application computer programs,which can be expensive to the organizations running thesemission-critical application programs.

Furthermore, in most organizations, power conservation has become anissue, both to reduce operational costs of IT, and to prove to thegeneral public that the organizations are good public citizens. In manysituations, a larger number of servers than is typically needed arepowered on, for peak-utilization situations in which the processingcapability of all the servers may be needed. However, the occurrence ofsuch peak-utilization situations may be infrequent, wasting electricalpower for the majority of the time in which all of the servers remainpowered on.

For these and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A system of an embodiment of the present invention includes a network, anumber of server computing devices, and a management server computingdevice. The server computing devices are communicatively coupled to thenetwork. Each server computing device has a virtual host computerprogram running thereon to support one or more virtual machine computerprograms. Each virtual machine computer program is able to execute aninstance of an operating system on which application computer programsare executable. The management server computing device is alsocommunicatively coupled to the network. The management server computingdevice monitors the server computing devices, and causes the virtualmachine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer programof one of the server computing devices to migrate to the virtual hostcomputer program of another of the server computing devices, upon one ormore conditions being satisfied.

A management system of another embodiment of the present invention isfor a number of server computing devices that have virtual host computerprograms running thereon to support virtual machine computer programsthat are able to execute instances of operating systems. The managementsystem includes a coordinator server computing device and a managementserver computing device. The coordinator server computing devicecommunicates with and coordinates the virtual machine computer programssupported by the virtual host computer programs of the server computingdevices. The management server computing device causes the virtualmachine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer programof a first server computing device to migrate to the virtual hostcomputer program of a second server computing device, upon detecting oneor more conditions being satisfied. The management server computingdevice causes the migration by communicating with the coordinator servercomputing device.

An article of manufacture of an embodiment of the invention includes acomputer-readable medium and means in the medium. The means is fordynamically migrating virtual machine computer programs supported by avirtual host computer program of a first server computing device to avirtual host computer program of a second server computing device,without restarting the virtual machine computer programs, upon one ormore conditions being satisfied. The conditions may include one or moreof: the first server computing device being predicted as failure prone;the first server computing device being determined as having resourceutilization less than a threshold; and, the first server computingdevice being determined as having power consumption less than athreshold.

A method of varying embodiments of the invention first predicts afailure at a first server computing device, detects resource utilizationat the first server computing device as less than a threshold, and/ordetects power consumption of the first server computing device as lessthan a threshold. In response, the method correlates the first servercomputing device with a virtual host computer program supporting one ormore virtual machine computer programs. The method dynamically migratesthe virtual machine computer programs from the virtual host computerprogram of the first server computing device to a virtual host computerprogram of a second server computing device.

Embodiments of the invention provide for advantages over the prior art.Maximum server availability is provided by predicting failures atservers, and, before these servers can fail, their virtual machinecomputer programs are dynamically migrated to another server. Dynamicmigration means that the operating systems supported by these virtualmachine computer programs do not have to be shutdown or restarted duringthe migration process. Power conservation is provided by monitoringresource utilization of the servers and/or power consumption of theservers. When, for a given server, either falls below a correspondingthreshold, this means that the server's processing capability is notbeing efficiently utilized, such that it should and can be powered downuntil the capability is needed. Therefore, the virtual machine computerprograms running on the server are dynamically migrated to anotherserver, and the former server shut down.

Still other advantages, aspects, and embodiments of the invention willbecome apparent by reading the detailed description that follows, and byreferring to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings referenced herein form a part of the specification.Features shown in the drawings are meant as illustrative of only someembodiments of the invention, and not of all embodiments of theinvention, unless otherwise explicitly indicated, and implications tothe contrary are otherwise not to be made.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a system in which there are servers havingvirtual host computer programs that support virtual machine computerprograms, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a system in which there are servers havingvirtual host computer programs that support virtual machine computerprograms, according to another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for ensuring maximum serveravailability, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method for ensuring power conservation bymonitoring resource utilization, according to an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method for ensuring power conservation bymonitoring power consumption, according to an embodiment of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of theinvention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form apart hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specificexemplary embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. Theseembodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilledin the art to practice the invention. Other embodiments may be utilized,and logical, mechanical, and other changes may be made without departingfrom the spirit or scope of the present invention. The followingdetailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense,and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appendedclaims.

System and Overview

FIG. 1 shows a system 100, according to an embodiment of the invention.The system 100 includes a network 102, to which servers 104A and 104B,collectively referred to as the servers 104, are communicativelycoupled. Although FIG. 1 shows two of the servers 104, there may be morethan two of the servers 104 in one embodiment. A management console 106,a management server 108, and a coordinator server 110, which togethermay be considered to be a management system for the servers 104, arealso each communicatively coupled to the network 102. The network 102may be or include one or more of: a local-area network (LAN), awide-area network (WAN), an intranet, an extranet, the Internet, a wirednetwork, a wireless network, and a telephony network, among other typesof networks.

Each of the servers 104 is a server computing device. The server 104Aincludes a network adapter 112 to communicatively couple the server 104Ato the network 102, whereas the server 104B includes a network adapter118 to communicatively couple the server 104B to the network 102. Theserver 104A also includes a network adapter 114 to communicativelycouple the server 104A to a separate storage area network (SAN) 116,whereas the server 104B includes a network adapter 120 tocommunicatively couple the server 104B to the SAN 116. The SAN 116 is anetworked collection of storage, such as hard disk drives, that areavailable to both of the servers 104. Furthermore, the servers 104 mayeach include other hardware components beside those indicated in FIG. 1,such as processors, memory, and so on.

The server 104A has a virtual host computer program 122 running thereon,while the server 104B has a virtual host computer program 124 runningthereon. The virtual host computer programs 122 and 124 are supervisorycomputer programs that enable a number of virtual machines to run on theservers 104. For instance, the server 104A has virtual machine computerprograms 126A and 126B, collectively referred to as the virtual machinecomputer programs 126, running thereon as supported by the virtual hostcomputer program 122. Similarly, the server 104B has virtual machinecomputer programs 128A and 128B, collectively referred to as the virtualmachine computer programs 128, running thereon as supported by thevirtual host computer program 124. Although there are two of the virtualmachine computer programs 128 and 126 for each of the servers 104 inFIG. 1, in other embodiments of the invention there can be more or lessvirtual machine computer programs.

The virtual machine computer programs 126 and 128 are separatepartitions that enable the servers 104 to run independent and multipleinstances of operating systems thereon, such as versions of theMicrosoft Windows® operating system, versions of the UNIX® operatingsystem, and versions of the Linux® operating system. As such, each ofthe virtual machine computer programs 126 and 128 can be considered avirtual computer, in that the operating systems running on the virtualmachine computer programs 126 and 128 operate as if they were the onlyoperating systems running on their respective servers 104. Therefore, avirtual machine computer program is a single system image within acomputer that supports multiple system images. Each system imagecontains the operating system and its associated applications, and eachimage may have the same operating system or a different operatingsystem. The operating systems running on the virtual machine computerprograms 126 and 128 allow application computer programs to be executedthereon.

The coordinator server 110 is a server computing device, and may includehardware such as processors, memory, storage, and network adapters, aswell as other types of hardware, which are not particularly depicted inFIG. 1. The coordinator server 110 coordinates the virtual machinecomputer programs 126 and 128 supported by the virtual host computerprograms 122 and 124 running on the servers 104. In particular, thecoordinator server 110 monitors in conjunction with which of the virtualhost computer programs 122 and 124, and thus, indirectly, which of theservers 104, each of the virtual machine computer programs 126 and 128is running.

The coordinator server 110 further is able to accomplish migration ofvirtual machine computer programs from one of the servers 104 to anotherof the servers 104. That is, the coordinator server 110 specificallyinitiates, facilitates, and orchestrates such migration. For instance,the coordinator server 110 is able to cause either or both of thevirtual machine computer programs 128 to migrate, or move, from beingsupported by the virtual host computer program 124 of the server 104B tobeing supported by the virtual host computer program 122 of the server104A. In at least some embodiments of the invention, the migration ofvirtual host computer programs among the servers 104 is dynamic, whichmeans that the virtual host computer programs do not have to be shutdown or restarted before and after moving to a new server.

As a result, the operating systems running on the virtual machinecomputer programs and the application computer programs running on theoperating systems do not have to be shutdown or restarted during themigration process. For example, instances of VMware® virtual machinecomputer programs, available from VMware, Inc., may be dynamicallymigrated among virtual host computer programs of servers. In anotherembodiment, the migration of virtual host computer programs among theservers 104 is static, in that virtual machine computer programs mayfirst have to be shut down before being moved to another server, andthen restarted at the new server.

The management server 108 is a server computing device, and may includehardware such as processors, memory, storage, and network adapters, aswell as other types of hardware, which are not particularly depicted inFIG. 1. The management server 108 is able to cause the virtual machinecomputer programs 126 and 128 supported by the virtual host computerprograms 122 and 124 running on the servers 104 to migrate between thevirtual host computer programs 122 and 124 and thus between the servers104. For instance, in one embodiment, the management server 108 maymigrate the virtual machine computer programs 126 and 128 between thevirtual host computer programs 122 and 124 and thus between the servers104 by sending commands to the coordinator server 110, which actuallyperforms the migration process. In an alternative embodiment, themanagement server 108 may itself migrate virtual machine computerprograms 126 and 128 between the virtual host computer programs 122 and124 and thus between the servers 104, especially where such migration isstatic migration, without involving the coordinator server 110, whichmay not be present in the system 100 in this embodiment.

The management server 108 may control the servers 104 and 108, such asrestarting and shutting them down, via the network adapters 112 and 118,which may be remote supervisor adapters in one embodiment. Themanagement server 108 is further to monitor the occurrence orsatisfaction of one or more conditions that occur relative to any of theservers 104. In response to any of the conditions being satisfied withrespect to a particular one of the servers 104, the management server108 causes the virtual machine computer programs on this server tomigrate to the other server, and then shuts down or causes the server toshut down.

In one embodiment, the management server 108 performs its monitoringfunctionality in relation to a management agent computer program 130running on the virtual host 122 of the server 104A, and a managementagent computer program 132 running on the virtual host 124 of the server104B. In another embodiment, the management server 108 may be able toaccomplish static migration of the virtual machine computer programs 126and 128 between the virtual host computer programs 122 and 124 betweenthe servers 104, without involving the coordinator server 110, via themanagement agent computer programs 130 and 132. As such, the managementagent computer programs 130 and 132 may allow the management server 108to control their servers 104 therethrough. An agent may generally beconsidered a computer program that runs at the behest of anothercomputer or computer program.

The management agent computer programs 130 and 132 or the networkadapters 112 or 118, thus report back to the server 108 when one of theconditions has occurred. For example, one of the conditions may be thatone of the servers 104 has been detected or predicted as being failureprone. That is, the management agent computer program running on aserver may predict that a failure is likely to occur on the server inthe near future. As an illustrative example, the operating temperatureof the server may be outside of a desired range, indicating that thecooling subsystem of the server is malfunctioning, and which may portendfailure of the entire server itself. Migration of the virtual machinecomputer programs away from such a failure-prone server thereforeprovides for maximum server availability. In this example, themanagement server 108 monitors predictive failure of the servers 104.

Another condition may be that one of the servers 104 is determined ashaving resource utilization less than a threshold. For instance, theprocessors of a server may on average have less than 20% utilization,the memory of the server may on average have less than 30% utilization,and so on. Migration of the virtual machine computer programs away fromsuch an under-utilized server may be accomplished so that the server maybe shut down to decrease power consumption within the system 100. Thevirtual machine computer programs utilizing such a low amount of theirserver's resources are likely to be able to easily be absorbed byanother server.

A third example of one of the conditions may be that one of the servers104 is determined as having power consumption less than a threshold. Forinstance, a server may be consuming less than 30 watts of power, whenduring more regular operation the server is likely to consume more than100 watts of power. Such low power consumption indirectly indicates thatthe server is being under utilized, such that migration of the virtualmachine computer programs away from the server may be accomplished sothat the server can be shut down to decrease power consumption. Asbefore, the virtual machine computer programs utilizing such a lowamount of their server's resources are likely to be able to easily beabsorbed by another server.

The management console 106 is a computing device, such as a clientcomputing device. The console 106 may include hardware such asprocessors, memory, storage, and network adapters, as well as othertypes of hardware, which are not particularly depicted in FIG. 1. Themanagement console 106 allows a network administrator or another user tomodify parameters associated with the monitoring of the servers 104 andthe migration of the virtual machine computer programs 126 and 128 amongthe servers 104. For instance, the management console 106 may be themechanism by which a user is able to interact with the management server108 and change the various thresholds associated with the conditionsmonitored by the management server 108. A user may be able to change howpredictive faults are determined by the management server 108, thethresholds at which resource utilization of the servers 104 isconsidered low, and/or the thresholds at which power consumption of theservers 104 is considered low, in one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 shows the system 100, according to another embodiment of theinvention. Like-numbered features and components of the system 100between FIGS. 1 and 2 indicate comparable functionality between theembodiments of FIGS. 1 and 2, and description thereof is not representedin relation to FIG. 2 to avoid redundancy. In the embodiment of FIG. 2,the servers 104 are implemented as blade servers physically connected toa common blade chassis 202. The blade chassis 202 has a backplane intowhich the blade servers 104 are connected, where the blade servers 104obtain power and interconnect with other system components via theirinsertion into the blade chassis 202.

The blade servers 104 are therefore insertable into and controllable byor via the blade chassis 202. The blade servers 104 are thussingle-board computers or input/output (I/O) boards. The blade chassis202 has network adapters 114 and 120 for the blade servers 104A and104B, through which the blade servers 104 are communicatively connectedto the SAN 116. The network adapters 114 and 120 in this embodiment maythus be host bus or board adapters. The blade chassis 202 further has amanagement module 212, via which the blade chassis 202, and thus theblade servers 104, communicate with the network 102 and thus with themanagement server 108 and the coordinator server 110. The managementmodule 212 is a hardware module that enables the management server 108in particular to control the servers 104 of the chassis 202.

The coordinator server 110 is specifically depicted in FIG. 2 asincluding a management agent computer program 210, through which themanagement server 108 communicates with the coordinator server 110. Themanagement agent computer program 210 may also be included in theembodiment of FIG. 1, although it is not specifically depicted inFIG. 1. The management server 108 itself is depicted in FIG. 2 asincluding a resource consumption monitor service 208. The resourceconsumption monitor service 208 specifically is the mechanism in theembodiment of FIG. 2 by which the management server 108 monitorsresource utilization and/or power consumption of the blade servers 104.As such, the blade servers 104 include additional agent computerprograms 204 and 206 that are resource consumption monitor agentcomputer programs monitoring resource utilization and/or powerconsumption of the blade servers 104. The resource consumption monitoragent computer programs 204 and 206 monitor the resource utilizationand/or power consumption of their respective blade servers 104,communicating back to the resource consumption monitor service 208, andthus to the management server 108, when resource utilization and/orpower utilization drops below a given threshold.

Ensuring Maximum Server Availability

FIG. 3 shows a method 300 for ensuring maximum server availability,according to an embodiment of the invention. The method 300 may beperformed in relation to the system 100 of FIG. 1 or FIG. 2. The method300 is specifically described in relation to the system 100 of FIG. 1for examples purposes only. Furthermore, the method 300 may beimplemented as a computer program that can be stored on and/or executedfrom a computer-readable medium. Such a medium may include a volatile ornon-volatile medium, a semiconductor medium, a magnetic medium, and/oran optical medium.

The management server 108 first receives user specification of failureconditions as entered by a user at the management console 106 (302). Forinstance, the user may specify the types of failures of the servers 104to be predicted or detected by the management server 108, by the agentcomputer programs 130 and 132, or by the network adapters 112 and 118.The user may further specify the courses of action to be taken by themanagement server 108 when such imminent failure of any of the servers104 is detected. Most generally, the user specifies one or moreconditions corresponding to predictive failure of any of the servers104.

Thereafter, one of the agent computer programs 130 and 132 or one of thenetwork adapters 112 and 118 detects a potential coming failure at theserver 104A or 104B (304). That is, one of the agent computer programs130 and 132 predicts that either the server 104A or 104B may fail. Fordescriptive simplicity, the server 104B is presumed to be the failingserver, such that the agent computer program 132 or the network adapter118 detects that the server 104B may imminently fail. The agent computerprogram 132 or the network adapter 118 reports back to the managementserver 108, indicating that the server 104B may fail.

The management server 108 communicates with the coordinator server 110and the agent 132 to determine which of the virtual machine computerprograms 126 and 128 is running on the virtual host 124 (306). That is,the management server 108 receives alerts from the agent 132 or thenetwork adapter 118 and correlates the server 104B with virtual host 124through previous interface with the agent. The management server thenpasses to the coordinator server 110 the identity of virtual host 124.In response, the coordinator server 110 correlates the virtual machinecomputer programs 128A and 128B supported by the virtual host computerprogram 124. The coordinator server 110 reports this information to themanagement server 108.

The virtual machine computer programs 128 are dynamically migrated fromthe virtual host computer program 124 running on the potentially failingserver 104B to the virtual host computer program 122 running on theserver 104A (308). In one embodiment, the management server 108 maycommunicate with the coordinator server 110 to cause the coordinatorserver 110 to accomplish such dynamic migration. Once the migration ofthe virtual machine computer programs 128 to the server 104A iscomplete, the coordinator server 110 may report back to the managementserver 108 that the migration has been successfully completed.

The virtual host computer program 124 is then shut down (310). In oneembodiment, the management server 108 may communicate with thecoordinator server 110 to stop execution of the virtual host computerprogram 124. The potentially failing server 104B is finally shut down(312). In one embodiment, the management server 108 may remotely shutdown the server 104B via its agent computer program 132. In anotherembodiment, the management server 108 may instruct the user at themanagement console 106 to manually shut down the server 104B.

Ensuring Power Conservation by Monitoring Server Resource Utilization

FIG. 4 shows a method 400 for achieving power conservation by monitoringserver resource utilization, according to an embodiment of theinvention. The method 400 may be performed in relation to the system 100of FIG. 1 or FIG. 2. The method 400 is specifically described inrelation to the system 100 of FIG. 2 for examples purposes only.Furthermore, like the method 300 of FIG. 3, the method 400 of FIG. 4 maybe implemented as a computer program that can be stored on and/orexecuted from a computer-readable medium. Such a medium may include avolatile or non-volatile medium, a semiconductor medium, a magneticmedium, and/or an optical medium.

The management server 108 first receives user specification of resourceutilization conditions as entered by a user at the management console106 (402). For instance, the user may specify the resource utilizationthreshold at which the servers 104 are considered to be utilizing a lowamount of their resources, as detected by the management server 108and/or by the agent computer programs 204 and 206. The user may furtherspecify the courses of action to be taken by the management server 108when such low resource utilization of any of the servers 104 isdetected. Most generally, the user specifies one or more conditionscorresponding to resource utilization of any of the servers 104.

Thereafter, one of the agent computer programs 204 or 206 detectsresource utilization of the server 104A or 104B as being less than athreshold (404). That is, one of the agent computer programs 204 and 206detects that either the server 104A or 104B has less than a thresholdpercentage of its resources being utilized. For descriptive simplicity,the server 104B is presumed to be the server having its resourcesutilized less than the threshold percentage, such that the agentcomputer program 206 detects this condition. The agent computer program206 reports such detection back to the resource consumption monitorservice 208 of the management server 108.

The management server 108 communicates with the coordinator server 110and the agent 132 to determine which of the virtual machine computerprograms 126 and 128 is running on the virtual host 124 (406). That is,the management server 108 passes to the coordinator server 110 theidentity of virtual host 124. In response, the coordinator server 110correlates the virtual machine computer programs 128A and 128B with thevirtual host computer program 124. The coordinator server 110 reportsthis information to the management server 108.

The virtual machine computer programs 128 are dynamically migrated fromthe virtual host computer program 124 running on the server 104B to thevirtual host computer program 122 running on the server 104A (408). Inone embodiment, the management server 108 may communicate with thecoordinator server 110 to cause the coordinator server 110 to accomplishsuch dynamic migration. Once the migration of the virtual machinecomputer programs 128 to the server 104A is complete, the coordinatorserver 110 may report back to the management server 108 that themigration has been successfully completed. Communication between thecoordinator server 110 and the management server 108 may be accomplishedvia the agent computer program 210 of the coordinator server 110.

The virtual host computer program 124 is then shut down (410). In oneembodiment, the management server 108 may communicate with thecoordinator server 110 to stop execution of the virtual host computerprogram 124. The server 104B is finally shut down (412). In oneembodiment, the management server 108 may remotely shut down the server104B via its agent computer program 132 or the management module 212. Inanother embodiment, the management server 108 may instruct the user atthe management console 106 to manually shut down the server 104B.

Ensuring Power Conservation by Monitoring Server Power Consumption

FIG. 5 shows a method 500 for achieving power conservation by monitoringserver power consumption, according to an embodiment of the invention.The method 500 may be performed in relation to the system 100 of FIG. 1or FIG. 2. The method 500 is specifically described in relation to thesystem 100 of FIG. 2 for examples purposes only. Furthermore, like themethod 300 of FIG. 3 and the method 400 of FIG. 4, the method 500 ofFIG. 5 may be implemented as a computer program that can be stored onand/or executed from a computer-readable medium. Such a medium mayinclude a volatile or non-volatile medium, a semiconductor medium, amagnetic medium, and/or an optical medium.

The management server 108 first receives user specification of powerconsumption conditions as entered by a user at the management console106 (502). For instance, the user may specify the power consumptionthreshold at which the servers 104 are considered to be utilizing a lowamount of power, as detected by the management server 108, by the agentcomputer programs 204 and 206, or by the management module 212. The usermay further specify the courses of action to be taken by the managementserver 108 when such low power consumption of any of the servers 104 isdetected. Most generally, the user specifies one or more conditionscorresponding to power consumption of any of the servers 104.

Thereafter, one of the agent computer programs 204 or 206 or themanagement module 212 detects power consumption of the server 104A or104B as being less than a threshold (504). That is, one of the agentcomputer programs 204 and 206 detects that either the server 104A or104B has less than a threshold amount of power being consumed. Fordescriptive simplicity, the server 104B is presumed to be the serverconsuming less than the threshold amount of power, such that the agentcomputer program 206 detects this condition. The agent computer program206 reports such detection back to the resource consumption monitorservice 208 of the management server 108.

The management server 108 communicates with the coordinator server 110and the agent 132 to determine which of the virtual machine computerprograms 126 and 128 is running on the virtual host 124 (506). That is,the management server 108 passes to the coordinator server 110 theidentity of virtual host 124. In response, the coordinator server 110correlates the virtual machine computer programs 128A and 128B with thevirtual host computer program 124. The coordinator server 110 reportsthis information to the management server 108.

The virtual machine computer programs 128 are dynamically migrated fromthe virtual host computer program 124 running on the server 104B to thevirtual host computer program 122 running on the server 104A (508). Inone embodiment, the management server 108 may communicate with thecoordinator server 110 to cause the coordinator server 110 to accomplishsuch dynamic migration. Once the migration of the virtual machinecomputer programs 128 to the server 104A is complete, the coordinatorserver 110 may report back to the management server 108 that themigration has been successfully completed. Communication between thecoordinator server 110 and the management server 108 may be accomplishedvia the agent computer program 210 of the coordinator server 110.

The virtual host computer program 124 is then shut down (510). In oneembodiment, the management server 108 may communicate with thecoordinator server 110 to stop execution of the virtual host computerprogram 124. The server 104B is finally shut down (512). In oneembodiment, the management server 108 may remotely shut down the server104B via its agent computer program 132 or the management module 212. Inanother embodiment, the management server 108 may instruct the user atthe management console 106 to manually shut down the server 104B.

Conclusion

It is noted that, although specific embodiments have been illustratedand described herein, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skillin the art that any arrangement calculated to achieve the same purposemay be substituted for the specific embodiments shown. This applicationis intended to cover any adaptations or variations of embodiments of thepresent invention. It is manifestly intended that this invention belimited only by the claims and equivalents thereof.

We claim:
 1. A method comprising: predicting a failure at a first servercomputing device, where prediction of the failure is performed by oneof: a network adapter of the first server computing device, or an agentcomputer program running on a virtual host computer program running onthe first server computing device; in response to predicting the failureat the first server computing device, communicating the prediction ofthe failure at the first server computing device to the managementserver by the one of the network adapter of the first server computingdevice or the agent computer program running on the virtual hostcomputer program running on the first server computing device, wherecommunication of the prediction of the failure occurs from the one ofthe network adapter or the agent computer program to the managementserver without passing through a coordinator server different than themanagement server; in response to receiving the communication of theprediction of the failure, correlating the first server computing devicewith the virtual host computer program running on the first servercomputing device, by the management server, and sending an identity ofthe virtual host computer program from the management server to thecoordinator server; in response to receiving the identity of the virtualhost computer program from the management server, correlating thevirtual host computer program with one or more virtual machine computerprograms supported by the virtual host computer program, by thecoordinator server, and sending information regarding the virtualmachine computer programs from the coordinator server to the managementserver; after receiving the information regarding the virtual machinecomputer programs from the coordinator server, sending an instructionfrom the management server to the coordinator server to dynamicallymigrate the virtual machine computer programs from the virtual hostcomputer program of the first server computing device; and, in responseto receiving the instruction from the management server, dynamicallymigrating the virtual machine computer programs from the virtual hostcomputer program of the first server computing device to a virtual hostcomputer program of a second server computing device, by the coordinatorserver.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising specifying one ormore conditions corresponding to the failure predicted at the firstserver computing device.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:stopping execution of the virtual host computer program of the firstserver computing device; and, turning off the first server computingdevice.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically migrating thevirtual machine computer programs comprises sending a command from amanagement server computing device to a coordinator server computingdevice able to control the virtual host computer programs of the firstand the second server computing devices.
 5. A method comprising:detecting resource utilization at a first server computing device lessthan a threshold, where detection of the resource utilization as lessthan the threshold is performed by one of: a network adapter of thefirst server computing device, or an agent computer program running on avirtual host computer program running on the first server computingdevice; in response to the detection, communicating the detection of theresource utilization as less than the threshold to the management serverby the one of the network adapter of the first server computing deviceor the agent computer program running on the virtual host computerprogram running on the first server computing device, wherecommunication of the detection occurs from the one of the networkadapter or the agent computer program to the management server withoutpassing through a coordinator server different than the managementserver; in response to receiving the communication of the detection,correlating the first server computing device with the virtual hostcomputer program running on the first server computing device, by themanagement server, and sending an identity of the virtual host computerprogram from the management server to the coordinator server; inresponse to receiving the identity of the virtual host computer programfrom the management server, correlating the virtual host computerprogram with one or more virtual machine computer programs supported bythe virtual host computer program, by the coordinator server, andsending information regarding the virtual machine computer programs fromthe coordinator server to the management server; after receiving theinformation regarding the virtual machine computer programs from thecoordinator server, sending an instruction from the management server tothe coordinator server to dynamically migrate the virtual machinecomputer programs from the virtual host computer program of the firstserver computing device; and, in response to receiving the instructionfrom the management server, dynamically migrating the virtual machinecomputer programs from the virtual host computer program of the firstserver computing device to a virtual host computer program of a secondserver computing device, by the coordinator server.
 6. The method ofclaim 5, further comprising specifying one or more conditionscorresponding to the resource utilization at the first server computingdevice less than the threshold.
 7. The method of claim 5, furthercomprising: stopping execution of the virtual host computer program ofthe first server computing device; and, turning off the first servercomputing device.
 8. The method of claim 5, wherein dynamicallymigrating the virtual machine computer programs comprises sending acommand from a management server computing device to a coordinatorserver computing device able to control the virtual host computerprograms of the first and the second server computing devices.
 9. Amethod comprising: detecting power consumption of a first servercomputing device less than a threshold, where detection of the powerconsumption as less than the threshold is performed by one of: a networkadapter of the first server computing device, or an agent computerprogram running on a virtual host computer program running on the firstserver computing device; in response to the detection, communicating thedetection of the power consumption as less than the threshold to themanagement server by the one of the network adapter of the first servercomputing device or the agent computer program running on the virtualhost computer program running on the first server computing device,wherein communication of the prediction of the failure occurs from theone of the network adapter or the agent computer program to themanagement server without passing through a coordinator server differentthan the management server; in response to receiving the communicationof the detection, correlating the first server computing device with thevirtual host computer program running on the first server computingdevice, by the management server, and sending an identity of the virtualhost computer program from the management server to the coordinatorserver; in response to receiving the identity of the virtual hostcomputer program from the management server, correlating the virtualhost computer program with one or more virtual machine computer programssupported by the virtual host computer program, by the coordinatorserver, and sending information regarding the virtual machine computerprograms from the coordinator server to the management server; afterreceiving the information regarding the virtual machine computerprograms from the coordinator server, sending an instruction from themanagement server to the coordinator server to dynamically migrate thevirtual machine computer programs from the virtual host computer programof the first server computing device; and, in response to receiving theinstruction from the management server, dynamically migrating thevirtual machine computer programs from the virtual host computer programof the first server computing device to a virtual host computer programof a second server computing device, by the coordinator server.
 10. Themethod of claim 9, further comprising specifying one or more conditionscorresponding to the power consumption at the first server computingdevice less than the threshold.
 11. The method of claim 9, furthercomprising: stopping execution of the virtual host computer program ofthe first server computing device; and, turning off the first servercomputing device.
 12. The method of claim 9, wherein dynamicallymigrating the virtual machine computer programs comprises sending acommand from a management server computing device to a coordinatorserver computing device able to control the virtual host computerprograms of the first and the second server computing devices.
 13. Asystem comprising: a network; a plurality of server computing devicescommunicatively coupled to the network, each server computing devicehaving a virtual host computer program running thereon to support one ormore virtual machine computer programs, each virtual machine computerprogram able to execute an instance of an operating system on whichapplication computer programs are executable, wherein each servercomputing device comprises one of: a network adapter to detect one ormore conditions being satisfied; an agent computer program running onthe virtual machine computer program to detect the conditions beingsatisfied, wherein the conditions comprise one or more of: a failure atthe server computing device, resource utilization at the servercomputing device less than a first threshold, power consumption of theserver computing device less than a second threshold; a managementserver computing device communicatively coupled to the network tomonitor the server computing devices; and, a coordinator servercomputing device communicatively coupled to the network to coordinatethe virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual hostcomputer program of each server computing device, the coordinator serverbeing different than the management server, wherein in response todetection of the conditions being satisfied, the network adapter or theagent computer program is to communicate the detection to the managementserver, where communication of the detection is to occur without passingthrough the coordinator server, wherein in response to receiving thecommunication of the detection, the management server is to correlate agiven server computing device in relation to which the detection hasoccurred with the virtual host computer program running on the givenserver computing device, and to send an identity of the virtual hostcomputer program running on the given server computing device to thecoordinator server, wherein in response to receiving the identity of thevirtual host computer program running on the given server computingdevice from the management server, the coordinator server is tocorrelate the virtual host computer program running on the given servercomputing device with the virtual machine computer programs supported bythe virtual host computer program running on the given server computingdevice, and to send information regarding the virtual machine computerprograms supported by the virtual host computer program running on thegiven server computing device to the management server, wherein afterreceiving the information regarding the virtual machine computerprograms supported by the virtual host computer program running on thegiven server computing device from the coordinator server, themanagement server is to send an instruction to the coordinator server todynamically migrate the virtual machine programs from the virtual hostcomputer program of the given server computing device, and wherein inresponse to receiving the instruction from the management server, thecoordinator server is to dynamically migrate the virtual machinecomputer programs from the virtual host computer program of the givenserver computing device to a virtual host computer program of adifferent server computing device of the server computing devices. 14.The system of claim 13, wherein the management server computing deviceis to cause the virtual machine computer programs supported by thevirtual host computer program of one of the server computing devices todynamically migrate to the virtual host computer program of anotherserver computing device, such that the virtual machine computer programssupported by the virtual host computer program are migrated withoutrestarting.
 15. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or moreconditions comprises one of the server computing devices having thevirtual host computer program from which the virtual machine computerprograms are to be migrated being predicted as failure prone.
 16. Thesystem of claim 13, wherein the one or more conditions comprises the oneof the server computing devices having the virtual host computer programfrom which the virtual machine computer programs are to be migratedbeing determined as having resource utilization less than a threshold.17. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more conditions comprisesone of the server computing devices having the virtual host computerprogram from which the virtual machine computer programs are to bemigrated being determined as having power consumption less than athreshold.
 18. The system of claim 13, wherein the agent computerprogram running on the virtual host computer program of each servercomputing device is to monitor predictive failure of the servercomputing device for the management server computing device.
 19. Thesystem of claim 13, further comprising a server blade chassis, eachserver computing device implemented as a server blade insertable intoand controllable by the server blade chassis.
 20. The system of claim19, further comprising a hardware management module for the server bladechassis through which the management server computing device is able tocontrol the server computing devices of the server blade chassis.